The late afternoon weekend crowd on the cable section of Half Dome.
The weekend summer crowds climbing Half Dome in Yosemite National Park have raised safety concerns among the climbers and park. Hundreds climb the precarious cable section every summer weekend day - many who are not prepared for the strenuous hike and 100 yard cable climb. Photos taken at Half Dome on Saturday, June 30, 2007.
Photo by Michael Maloney / San Francisco Chronicle
***
Ran on: 03-06-2011
The mass of people trying to negotiate the Half Dome cable route in Yosemite National Park began to threaten safety and has resulted in a quota system. Now, reservations are snatched up in minutes online.
Ran on: 03-06-2011
The mass of people trying to negotiate the Half Dome cable route in Yosemite National Park began to threaten safety and has resulted in a quota system.

Photo: Michael Maloney, The Chronicle

The late afternoon weekend crowd on the cable section of Half...

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A photo of the Half Dome cables in Yosemite, taken on a busy day in 2008 prior to the implementation of the permit system.
Please photo credit: NPS Photo
Kari Cobb
Public Affairs Officer
Office of the Superintendent
209-372-0529

Photo: NPS Photo

A photo of the Half Dome cables in Yosemite, taken on a busy day in...

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Half Dome (center) and El Capitan (left) are the two most prominent granite mountains in Yosemite National Park. At an elevation of 8,836 feet, Half Dome can be a challenging hike of over 16 miles round trip from the trailhead on the valley floor.
The weekend summer crowds climbing Half Dome in Yosemite National Park have raised safety concerns among the climbers and park. Hundreds climb the precarious cable section every summer weekend day - many who are not prepared for the strenuous hike and 100 yard cable climb. Photos taken at Half Dome on Saturday, June 30, 2007.
Photo by Michael Maloney / San Francisco Chronicle
***

Photo: Michael Maloney, The Chronicle

Half Dome (center) and El Capitan (left) are the two most prominent...

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Climbers on the cable section of Half Dome descend the steep granite pitch, some holding on for dear life, others without any concern whatsoever. The weekend summer crowds climbing Half Dome in Yosemite National Park have raised safety concerns among the climbers and park. Hundreds climb the precarious cable section every summer weekend day - many who are not prepared for the strenuous hike and 100 yard cable climb. Photos taken at Half Dome on Saturday, June 30, 2007.
Photo by Michael Maloney / San Francisco Chronicle
***
Ran on: 11-04-2007
Yosemite ranger Jesse McGahey inspects a rope abandoned at the base of El Capitan, emblematic of the gear and trash left behind by novices unschooled in climbing ethics.
Ran on: 02-10-2010
Climbers in 2007 line up on Half Dome's cable section, waiting to make the steep descent. New required permits will be available starting March 1.
Ran on: 02-10-2010
Climbers in 2007 line up on Half Dome's cable section, waiting to make the steep descent. Newly required permits will be available starting March 1.

Photo: Michael Maloney, The Chronicle

Climbers on the cable section of Half Dome descend the steep...

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An impatient climber descends on the outside of the cables - a very dangerous place to be.
The weekend summer crowds climbing Half Dome in Yosemite National Park have raised safety concerns among the climbers and park. Hundreds climb the precarious cable section every summer weekend day - many who are not prepared for the strenuous hike and 100 yard cable climb. Photos taken at Half Dome on Saturday, June 30, 2007.
Photo by Michael Maloney / San Francisco Chronicle
***
Ran on: 02-10-2010
An impatient climber dangerously descends on the outside of the cables used to get to Half Dome's top.
Ran on: 02-10-2010
An impatient climber dangerously descends on the outside of the cables used to get to Half Dome's top.

Photo: Michael Maloney, The Chronicle

An impatient climber descends on the outside of the cables - a very...

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The average steepness of the cable section is around 45 degrees however when you are close and looking straight up, it looks much steeper. (This photo taken before the crowds arrived).
The weekend summer crowds climbing Half Dome in Yosemite National Park have raised safety concerns among the climbers and park. Hundreds climb the precarious cable section every summer weekend day - many who are not prepared for the strenuous hike and 100 yard cable climb. Photos taken at Half Dome on Saturday, June 30, 2007.
Photo by Michael Maloney / San Francisco Chronicle
***

Photo: Michael Maloney, The Chronicle

The average steepness of the cable section is around 45 degrees...

Image 7 of 12

Scott Mutch takes a well deserved rest at the top of Half Dome. He lead a group of Boy Scouts (Alta Loma, CA Troop 626)to the top.
The weekend summer crowds climbing Half Dome in Yosemite National Park have raised safety concerns among the climbers and park. Hundreds climb the precarious cable section every summer weekend day - many who are not prepared for the strenuous hike and 100 yard cable climb. Photos taken at Half Dome on Saturday, June 30, 2007.
Photo by Michael Maloney / San Francisco Chronicle
***Scott Mutch

Photo: Michael Maloney, The Chronicle

Scott Mutch takes a well deserved rest at the top of Half Dome. He...

Image 8 of 12

At the top of Half Dome, Blake Chapman, 61 of Woodacre, CA shows his sandals that he used to climb Half Dome. He said they worked fine.
The weekend summer crowds climbing Half Dome in Yosemite National Park have raised safety concerns among the climbers and park. Hundreds climb the precarious cable section every summer weekend day - many who are not prepared for the strenuous hike and 100 yard cable climb. Photos taken at Half Dome on Saturday, June 30, 2007.
Photo by Michael Maloney / San Francisco Chronicle
***Blake Chapman

Photo: Michael Maloney, The Chronicle

At the top of Half Dome, Blake Chapman, 61 of Woodacre, CA shows...

Image 9 of 12

Sundance Fairchild-Manning (left) takes a photo of friends Shea and Michael Keane sharing a congratulatory kiss at the top of Half Dome. All three are from Vacaville, CA.
The weekend summer crowds climbing Half Dome in Yosemite National Park have raised safety concerns among the climbers and park. Hundreds climb the precarious cable section every summer weekend day - many who are not prepared for the strenuous hike and 100 yard cable climb. Photos taken at Half Dome on Saturday, June 30, 2007.
Photo by Michael Maloney / San Francisco Chronicle
***Sundance Fairchild-Manning, Shea and Michael Keane

Climbers on the cable section of Half Dome negotiate the steep granite pitch.
The weekend summer crowds climbing Half Dome in Yosemite National Park have raised safety concerns among the climbers and park. Hundreds climb the precarious cable section every summer weekend day - many who are not prepared for the strenuous hike and 100 yard cable climb. Photos taken at Half Dome on Saturday, June 30, 2007.
Photo by Michael Maloney / San Francisco Chronicle
***
Ran on: 07-07-2007
Climbers on Half Dome navigate the steep rock of the 400-foot climb to the summit using steel cable handrails and wooden foot planks. Some say crowds on the cables may have contributed to the June 16 death of a Japanese man who lost his footing and slid to his death.
Ran on: 07-07-2007
Climbers on Half Dome navigate the steep rock of the 400-foot climb to the summit using steel cable handrails and wooden foot planks. Some say crowds on the cables may have contributed to the June 16 death of a Japanese man who lost his footing and slid to his death.

Photo: Michael Maloney, The Chronicle

Climbers on the cable section of Half Dome negotiate the steep...

Image 11 of 12

Tourists overlooking Yosemite Valley, circa 1902. A man and woman lounge on Eagle Rock in Yosemite National Park. Half Dome and Nevada Falls are in the background. "The National Parks: America's Best Idea:" is a six-part, 12-hour film by Ken Burns on the history of AmericaÕs national parks and the people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved.

In the fastest five minutes of the year, Yosemite sold all the permits to climb Half Dome for weekends in May and June. For weekdays, the new required permits sold out in 23 minutes.

"We knew they wouldn't last a day," said Kari Cobb at Yosemite National Park. "It's the most popular hike in the park."

The rush could make the April 1 event, when Half Dome permits for July go on sale at 7 a.m., the most intense two or three minutes of the vacation season. If you're lucky, for a service fee of $1.50, you can get four permits.

On the first day of sales last year, when Yosemite first required climbing permits for weekends at Half Dome, they sold out in 32 minutes.

The hike up Half Dome in Yosemite Valley rivals Mount Fuji in Japan and Mount St. Helens in Washington as the world's most popular trek. In past years, so many people in Yosemite Valley attempted the climb on impulse that traffic jams of humanity often formed on the climbing cables.

On one trip with brother Rambob, we were stuck in place on a ledge at mid-wall for 30 minutes, with nothing to do except to wait it out and gaze across Tenaya Canyon. There were just too many people in one place, going both up and down on the cable.

Many have been unprepared for the physical challenge. From Yosemite Valley, it's an 8.5-mile ascent one-way with a 4,800-foot elevation gain. You climb past Vernal Fall, Nevada Fall and Little Yosemite en route to Half Dome's backside. The ultimate is the 440-foot cable ascent, where hiking becomes an act of faith, and you emerge atop the 13-acre (mostly flat) summit.

From the perch of a rock cornice atop Half Dome, Yosemite Valley looks like a miracle. Below you is nearly a mile of empty air. The canyon walls are framed by El Capitan on one side, three-spired Cathedral Rocks on the other. Long silver-tasseled waterfalls slide down the massive granite exposures of the towering canyon walls.

The best strategy to get a permit is to go to recreation.gov, the park's website for reservations, and create a user profile in advance. When the race starts at 7 a.m. April 1 (and again on May 1 for August), all you have to do is punch in a date and hope you don't get locked out. You can be out of luck if your server is slow or you can't break through the logjam of users. To get a reservation by phone, (877) 444-6777, seems virtually impossible. Many Chronicle readers e-mailed their frustrations over their failed attempts to get permits Tuesday.

By requiring permits, Cobb said, park rangers achieved two goals: reducing the number of people on the cables and increasing the level of planning and expertise for climbers.

"The numbers of people on Half Dome are down a quarter to one-third per day of what it used to be," Cobb said, with 300 permits now available from the reservation service, recreation.gov, and an additional 100 through wilderness permits from the Yosemite Wilderness Center.

The new process requires climbers to read safety information about the trek. That includes bringing enough water and food, and not wearing the wrong footwear. One time, at the foot of the cables, we ran into a group of kids on their way up the big rock who were carrying empty plastic jugs, and they asked brother Rambob, "Where's the water?" Another time, we saw someone wearing flip-flops who stubbed a toe. There are many such tales.

"Our search and rescue calls have been dramatically reduced," Cobb said. "With fewer people, you get the wilderness experience and they love it, not a parking lot of people." Providing, that is, you get one of those permits.

The Half Dome cables are usually in place the weekend before Memorial Day. Updates and info are available at nps.gov/yose; reservations at recreation.gov.

$20,000 in rewards

Two more snowboard deaths in tree wells the past two weekends provoked Chronicle reader Bob Zider to offer $20,000 in rewards to the winners of a contest to invent "a low-cost, reliable, positive-release snowboard system for powder conditions."

When boarders fall headfirst in powder in a tree well, they can smother to death because they can't get out on their own. Zider's son died in such an accident at Tahoe.

The problem is due, in part, to snowboarders' boots being locked in bindings. The closest design solution is a pull-release binding, a pull cord set at the hip that runs inside ski pants to release the bindings and free the boarders' legs, but it costs $300, is little known and used on split boards. After last Sunday's column, the company sold out of this design and has stopped taking orders.

"These kids are, by and large, just normal, good kids, who are completely unaware of the exponential risk they take near tree wells," Zider said.

"We have to try to find a better solution to reduce these tragic fatalities. The device I'm looking for has to be positively activated on demand by the boarder. Maybe this $20,000 challenge will lead to one."

The reward contest will be formally announced next week.

Notes of note

Salmon hope: Best guess is that there will be a full salmon season that opens in April on the Bay Area coast. Projections show about a million adult salmon available, about five times what we've had for years. Stay tuned.

Holding your breath: The ongoing delay in the announcement of state park closings, expected weeks ago, gives hope that the State Parks and Recreation Department will go to Plan B and keep parks open with self-pay systems and minimal or no services or maintenance.

Looking good: Massive San Luis Reservoir hit 99 percent full last week, so the delta pumps won't need to crank as hard when snowmelt commences this spring. The big lakes are in good shape for early March, with Shasta 83 percent full, Don Pedro 81, Oroville 76 and New Melones 70, and all have a chance to hit 95 percent by mid-May.

Behind the scenes, Part 1: Some have wondered whether commercial tourism outfits or guides wired the Half Dome climbing permits last week and hogged most of them, and that's why they went so fast. I'll watch Craigslist and other advertisements this spring for their sale or availability.

Behind the scenes, Part 2: When Pantoll Campground at Mount Tamalpais State Park was on the reservation system, it was routinely booked full all summer, yet there'd be nobody there, day after day. Turned out a San Francisco tourism outfit had booked the campground for tourists from Japan as part of a package deal with camping as an option. That is why Pantoll was switched to first-come, first-served.

Big Fish Club: A 58-inch striped bass, estimated at 55 pounds, was caught and released on the Feather River by Bob Boucke of Yuba City. ... A 15-pound, 5-ounce cutthroat trout that measured 32 1/2 inches was caught at Pyramid Lake near Reno by Ryan Bailey of Auburn. ... A 13-pound brown trout was caught at Baum Lake by Carla Higgenbothan of Burney.